Laurence Ainsworth is the programme manager for the West Cheshire whole place community budget

We need credible proposals: There is a window of opportunity to embrace the goodwill in Whitehall for this agenda. It's no good just articulating the problem of fragmented public services, you need a clear solution.

Make links with other ventures: As well as ensuring whole place and neighbourhood budgets are linked, it is important that this agenda is linked with economic growth and developments in relation to Lord Heseltine's proposals.

Growth must be considered: Local areas need the flexibility to develop their own solutions to issues like skills and employment, ensuring that support for individuals is there. While several of the pilots have developed strong proposals around skills, there are big question marks around whether they will be able to move forward.

Quality of local leadership: Unless leaders work together with other public sector partners to encourage local innovation and co-design, not before long things may be very dire indeed.

How can we make neighbourhood budgets work? These initiatives have to be community-led. We should invest in real intelligence about what works and what doesn't. Whitehall also has to be at the table and listening.

Don't get distracted by the term 'budgeting': This is an opportunity to have some meaningful discussions with local partners, police commissioners, clinical commissioners and housing associations about needs, priorities and resources. This needs to lead to meaningful action, not just more discussion.

We should recognise community budgets as a qualified success: Across Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea, our pilot has enabled us to innovate new ways to tackle offending, help young people into work and cut the length of care proceedings. However we still have a lot to do to make sure our ambitious plans to integrate health and social care deliver, and that the government sustains funding for our troubled families programmes.

Community budgeting means more than it suggests: The name the government has given this initiatve doesn't really describe what it's about. It's good to see local areas developing their own branding and focusing on 'areas' rather than local authority boundaries.

How can the two types of pilots learn from each other? We need to look at how lessons from the community budgets at both whole place and neighbourhood level can be shared across the sector, and – crucially – how the pilots can learn from each other.

Innovation can move things forward: On some of the tricky areas, real involvement from the Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health will help to drive initiatives forward.

Local authorities need clarity on future finance: There are lots of questions. Are there going to be incentives on offer? Will there be opportunities to look at how savings can be reinvested in prevention across partners locally?

Dan Gascoyne is assistant director of corporate policy, strategy and partnerships at Essex country council

People have to be engaged: Whether that's community groups, members, service users, families, businesses, citizens, patients, staff, this has to be a key principle in any public service re-design.